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奧巴馬對非洲的說教

A gatecrasher at Obama’s African homecoming

With every one of President Barack Obama’s trips toAfrica, he has seemed keen to make a historicstatement. His debut, a visit to Cairo , was meant to start a new phase in US-Arab relationsafter the grave misunderstandings seen during the presidency of George W Bush. The visit toGhana soon afterwards was no less significant — the nation became in 1957 the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence, and is the most stable democracy in westAfrica. Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa followed in 2013.

每次訪問非洲時，美國總統巴拉克攠巴馬(Barack Obama)似乎都熱衷于發表一份歷史性的聲明。他初次訪問非洲去了開羅，當時的用意是開啟美國和阿拉伯關系的新篇章，以彌合喬治圠布什(George W Bush)總統任期內出現的嚴重誤解。不久之后他對加納的訪問意義也很重大。加納于1957年成為第一個獨立的撒哈拉以南非洲國家，也是西非最穩定的民主國家。接著，奧巴馬又在2013年訪問了塞內加爾、坦桑尼亞和南非。

Mr Obama’s fourth visit to Africa, in July, was the first time a serving US president would visiteither Kenya or Ethiopia. With Kenya, there was the added significance of a homecoming: hisfather was born in the country and died there. Indeed, in one of the president’s speeches there,he described himself as “the first Kenyan-American to be president of the United States”.

今年7月奧巴馬對非洲的第四次訪問，是在任美國總統首次訪問肯尼亞或埃塞俄比亞。對肯尼亞的訪問還附帶了一層返鄉的含義：奧巴馬的父親出生在肯尼亞并亡故于此。的確，在肯尼亞的一次演說中，奧巴馬稱自己是“首位擔任美國總統的肯尼亞裔美國人。”

China has been paying attention; along with the US, it is a frontrunner in the race for economicand diplomatic influence on the continent. It overtook America as Africa’s largest tradingpartner in Mr Obama’s first year in office. That might have been on Hillary Clinton’s mind when,in Senegal as secretary of state in 2012, she said: “The days of having outsiders come and ex琀爀愀挀琀 the wealth of Africa for themselves, leaving nothing or very little behind, should be overin the 21st century”. Today it is Beijing being snarky, with state news agency Xinhua deridingMr Obama for “playing the family card”.

中國一直在關注奧巴馬的訪問。和美國一樣，在對非洲大陸經濟和外交影響力的比賽中，中國也是一位領跑者。就在奧巴馬擔任美國總統的第一年，中國超越美國成為非洲最大的貿易伙伴。2012年希拉里克林頓(Hillary Clinton)以美國國務卿身份訪問塞內加爾時，在發表言論時可能對此意有所指。她說：“外來者前來為自身利益剝削非洲財富，卻不留下任何東西或只留下極少東西，這樣的時代在21世紀應該結束了。”如今輪到北京說話刻薄，中國官方的新華社嘲笑奧巴馬在“打親情牌”。

Perhaps Chinese ire is a measure of the success of Mr Obama’s attempt to make up for theindifference of his first term. He has unveiled partnerships in infrastructure and trade, and aMandela Washington Fellowship targeting young African leaders. Yet the upper hand remainswith Beijing. The number of Chinese people in Africa is now estimated at more than 1m . MrObama’s final speech on the continent was delivered in the African Union’s imposing new AddisAbaba headquarters, a gift from the Chinese government.

中方的郁悶也許說明了奧巴馬彌補第一任期內冷落非洲的企圖取得成功。奧巴馬宣布了美國與非洲在基建和貿易上的合作項目，以及面向非洲青年領袖的曼德拉華盛頓獎學金(Mandela Washington Fellowship)項目。然而，北京在非洲依然處于優勢地位。目前在非洲的中國人估計已超過了100萬。奧巴馬在非洲大陸的最后一通演說，是在非洲聯盟(African Union)的新總部大樓發表的，而這棟位于亞的斯亞貝巴的氣勢宏偉的大樓是來自中國政府的禮物。

Preaching to Africa is one thing America has done better than any imperial overlord, and a USpresidential trip would not have been complete without it. In Kenya, Mr Obama spoke againstwidespread homophobia. Many Africans perceive this as an attempt to im瀀漀猀攀 an alienculture. In Ethiopia, he was scathing in his assessment of African rulers’ penchant for tenureextension. (Unlike the homosexuality point, this was extremely well received.)

在對非洲說教方面，美國比當年的殖民列強做得好，而美國總統在訪問非洲期間總要說教一番。在肯尼亞，奧巴馬發言反對普遍存在的同性戀恐懼癥。許多非洲人認為這是企圖將外來文化強加于非洲。在埃塞俄比亞，他尖銳抨擊了非洲統治者的戀棧偏好。(與同性戀問題上的表態不同，這一點得到了極大認同。)

The pulpiteering had an air of hypocrisy. Mr Obama described the Ethiopian government, whichtook 100 per cent of the vote in May, as “democratically elected”. Yet Burundi’s July poll, inwhich the opposition took more than a quarter of the vote, was “not credible”.

奧巴馬的說教也帶有一絲虛偽。奧巴馬稱埃塞俄比亞政府(在今年5月的選舉中得票率高達100%)是“民主選舉產生的”，卻說布隆迪7月份的選舉(反對派贏得逾四分之一選票)“不可信”。

Hanging over this Africa trip — as with Mr Obama’s previous ones — is the conundrum: “Whynot Nigeria?” It is Africa’s most populous country, and its largest economy; the US is its biggestinvestor and until last year the leading importer of its crude oil.

和奧巴馬此前的訪問一樣，他這次非洲之旅的一個謎團是：“為何不訪問尼日利亞?”尼日利亞是非洲人口最多的國家，也是非洲最大經濟體。美國是尼日利亞的最大投資者。直到去年，美國還是尼日利亞原油的最大進口國。

Before now, Mr Obama’s apparent reluctance to visit might have been explained by strainedrelations between the two countries, with the US alleging that Nigeria’s military has been guiltyof large-scale human rights abuses and that the central government has been too tolerant ofcorruption.

此前，奧巴馬顯然不愿訪問尼日利亞也許可以用兩國間的緊張關系解釋。美國指控尼日利亞軍方大規模侵犯人權，而尼日利亞中央政府對腐敗過于縱容。

Yet days before Mr Obama travelled to Kenya he treated Muhammadu Buhari, the new presidentelected on an anti-graft platform, to a lavish reception in Washington. Mr Buhari was asked inan interview by Christiane Amanpour of CNN if he was “disappointed” that the US leader hadyet again left out of his nation. “I wouldn’t say I was disappointed, but how I wished he’dchange his mind and go to Nigeria,” said Mr Buhari, adding that he planned to “send a formalinvitation”.

然而，就在奧巴馬赴肯尼亞訪問幾天前，他在華盛頓盛情款待了以反腐敗為競選平臺當選的尼日利亞新總統穆罕默杜布哈里(Muhammadu Buhari)。在一次訪談中，美國有線新聞網(CNN)的克里斯蒂安·阿曼普爾(Christiane Amanpour)問布哈里，奧巴馬再次將他的國家排除在外，是不是令他“失望”?布哈里回答說：“我不會說我很失望，但我確實非常希望他改變主意，去一下尼日利亞。”他還補充說，他打算“發出正式邀請”。

We may yet see one final African presidential trip in 2016.

2016年，我們也許會看到奧巴馬在總統任期內最后一次訪問非洲。